Tuesday, July 6, 2010

restaurants.com

About a year or so ago I discovered restaurants.com and jumped on the band wagon of purchasing a gift card using 80% coupon code. This means that I spent $10 dollars for a $50 dollar gift card. It sounded like a great deal and I couldn’t wait to go on a cheap date with my husband. After all I am a tightwad, so saving 80% was a big deal to me.

The process of ordering the gift card was super easy. I went and selected a region of were I reside and quickly learned that there are not too many gift cards available in my area. So I changed my region picking the nearest big city. I scrolled through the selection and picked a restaurant that I have never heard of before, but judging by their menu it looked pretty appetizing to me. Please note that gift cards selection was for the local restaurants and not for chain restaurants like Fridays.

After selecting the restaurant of my choice I filled out the credit card information and then was able to print the gift certificate. I had such an adrenalin rush that I forgot to read the small print instructions before purchasing the gift card. Ooops. But I had no problem reading the terms and conditions after my gift card was picked up of the printer.

I quickly learned that I had one year to use the gift card and must spend $35 dollars in order to redeem my $50 dollars gift card. If Daniel and I purchased enough food to total $50, we would still have to pay $15 dollars plus tip. It still sounded like a great deal of paying a total of $25 dollars (initial $10 dollars for a gift card and $15 dollars for the meal), while enjoying $50 dollars worth of food. It is almost like presenting a 50% off your meal coupon to a waitress.

Well, I am sure you all want to know if our meal was worth the money?! Well, I hate to disappoint you but we never redeemed the gift card. The restaurant was an hour from us, since we kind of live in a middle of nowhere. We just never could find the time in our schedule to drive an hour away and enjoy our $50 dollar meal. Instead I gave the gift card away to a co-worker who was more likely to visit the restaurant.
I highly suggest for you to go and check out www.restaurants.com to see if perhaps your favorite local restaurant is offering a gift card. If you were to purchase the gift card without any special coupon codes, you will receive 50% off. But I recommend you signing up for coupons and updates and before too long you will receive a coupon code for 80% off.

2 comments:

I used that site, but then they charged my card again and I had to call and cancel. I didn't read the fine print and that was my fault. So, I "unsigned" up for it and haven't used it since. Also, like you, the coupon I got required me to spend what actually ended up being more than I would have spent in the first place because it was a mexican restaurant. So, I ended up not trying to use the coupon either. However, I know a lady who uses that site all the time and loves it. She thinks it is really good for them because they have 3 kids, so it really pays off.

Isaac and I went to this nice little Italian restaurant we would have never tried without Restaurant.com. It was a fairly good deal but we probably spent the same if not more as we usually would since we normally split something so we can get dessert :o) We also tried a Jamaican restaurant downtown Greenville and that was a really good deal cause it was a $10 gift certificate and there wasn't a minimum purchase that I know of so we only spent $5-10 there.

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Welcome to Tightwad In Training!
My goal is to focus on saving money by sharing with people tips and ideas all while learning to be a good steward with what the Lord has blessed me with.
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